Hubert Cater
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Posts posted by Hubert Cater
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It's really a matter of play balance, and the current amounts play out very well within a reasonable historical range. The income values could have been handled in a variety of different ways, but as a design decision I just went with the current setup. What you get in the end is a pretty good simulation of production, build-ups and delays that result in a good proximation of the actual situation as it were. Of course, these values can be tinkered with in the Campaign editor, but as far as how it's balanced within the full game itself right now, I would think it's safe to say the 'Beta Boys' and I have not had any real problems.Any thoughts Hubert?
Hubert
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OK confusion straightened out, it seems the adjustments I made to some of the attack and defence values made the reprisal hit on carriers less likely when carriers attacked land units and thus the appearance to have been taken out entirely.
Hope that helps,
Hubert
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Not to worry, nothing is being discounted entirely for future versionsBut hopefully that will be possible in a future version.
Hubert
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Immer,
Actually I think this is a bit of a mixup, I haven't changed the implementation of carriers in this respect for the final version or gold demo. Sorry about that!
Hubert
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Once again, great site and thanks!
Hubert
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Sorry, for now you're stuck with the historical allegiancesPlease, Hubert, PLEEEEEEZZZZZZZEEEEEEEEE. Let us tinker with the allegiances of major powers with the editor.Hubert
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Many of the tweaks were to counter the gamey strategies and as you've pointed out the gamey strategies have more to deal with Axis strategies than Allies. This can be seen for natural reasons since they were the aggressors. So there is really not much that can be done to make things tougher for the Allies (without ruining play balance) other than improve the Axis AI. But not to worry, there have been some tweaks in this area as well, and some of the gamey baiting of the Axis AI has been eliminated so you should see some improved coordination between the combined arms during attacks.I'm a bit worried about one thing, though. There seems to be quite a bit of tweaking with respect to making things more challenging for the Axis player. But - other things being equal - I found that, at least against the computer, playing the Allies is *already* much easier than playing the Axis. So, apart from the entrenchment of the Italians, is there anything which helps the computer controlled Axis against a Human in return? For example, to loose France to the computer, I regularily have to give the Axis additional experience points.No miracles mind you, but giving the AI some experience bonus does help as you've already done. Believe me it is a challenge at the higher settings and can make games very interesting in terms of long term strategic thinking, especially when playing the 1939 campaign
Sorry, not right now.Btw will we have the AI vs AI feature? I really would like to balance scenarios with respect to how such "hands off" games turn out.Hubert
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It's a slight reduction in offensive potency so it may or may not, but as you said, it will play out more interestingly.That will probably be enough to save England, or at least make it impossible for Germany to win after buying too many AF in order to conquer England.Hubert
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This strategy should also be a bit more of a challenge as I have tweaked the 1940 setup and improved the mobile defence strategy of the Soviet AI to take advantage of the river hexes etc.
Hubert
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Switzerland has had a special rule added to them where their units start out fully entrenched in the mountains. While this will not probably make it as tough as it would have been in real life, it should make things a bit more interesting.
Hubert
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Interesting, I'll take a look at this
Hubert
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More specifically, you have to play well to be in the same position as the Germans were in may of 1940. Not impossible but it does make things more interesting when starting with the '39 campaign as Axis.To make matters worse, Hubert has said that if you start with the invasion of Poland, the Germans probably will not have done as well as how they start out in the demo.The point of the "ultimate strategy" did remind me of one small change that I made to Air Fleets, as I think it was brought up a while ago in another thread as well, basically the Air Fleets combat effectiveness has been reduced just slightly against soft and tank targets. The soft attack and tank attack values have been decreased by 1 point for the final version as well. This I think was needed and should make things slightly more interesting for strategies that wholely depend on air power alone.
Hubert
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I'll definitly agree with James here, it's I think tough enough to win as Axis on your own since in the big picture, the Axis must win early or face the economic disadvantage of facing 3-4 Allied majors. This is actually one of the reasons I did include the additional difficulty settings (started as settings to keep myself challenged when playing the game) and my favourite setting when playing as Allies is playing at 100% difficulty and giving the computer a +2 experience bonus. What usually happens is that the Axis AI will romp about for a bit, but you've really got to think LONG TERM and accept initial losses to try and eventually turn the tide by '42. I know that my opinion is biased of course
, but I find it makes for some really interesting games and every long term strategic decision counts, like defensive troop placement, purchases, research etc.I have yet to lose to the axis AI, but I have had a couple of REALLY close games that could have gone either way at that level.
Hubert
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Too funny!Another good review, so what's that? Hubert's batting 3 for 3!Which is better than any of the current crop of Toronto Blue Jays, eh?
Hey! I've got it! Now that Hubert is becoming rich and famous, he can buy the Jays , re-name them the Toronto Fury and who knows? In 20 or 30 years they can challenge the mighty New York Yankees!
And, to save a little money -- no need for an error-prone human manager, they can use Hubert's Amazing Logic, or... H.A.L. for short.
I can see it now, Summer of 2003...
HAL: Lay down a sacrifice bunt.
BENCH: But, Skip, we're down 13 to nothing and it's the bottom of the 9th already!
HAL: H.A.L. is infallible.
BENCH: And there are two outs!
HAL: H.A.L. is not only infallible, but has uncountable friends in extremely high places...
BENCH: Who's that? -- Spiderman? Yeah, is he still hanging around town trying to solve the garbage collector's strike?
HAL: ...and in low places as well, like the waterfront docks of 'Jersey.
BENCH: ... Hey Mack! Lay that baby on down...
(... ah, c'mon, forget it Jake, nothing we can do... it's... Straha Town ... :eek: )
Hubert
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My guess is this has to do with the initial strength of the US forces and the possibility of the gamey early invasion. I know that this has been brought up before in other threads, but I would wait for the Gold Demo since I have added a few special rules to majors that will make such invasions much riskier and most likely unattractive although not impossible. I think the small tweaks should solve the problem and thus not make it necessesary to overstrength the US since it is true to a certain degree that they were not all that prepared for war. The tweaks should also take care of Italy as well.
Hope that helps,
Hubert
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Hi Everyone,
Just wanted to apologize for the extended delays on the Gold announcement. Last weeks events coupled with a few unexpected items will unfortunatly cause this announcement to be slightly delayed. I'm sorry for the string of promises and please feel free to blame me as I am positive some of my inexperiences have come to play in this matter. I just ask for your continued patience and support and we'll get this game out for you guys soon. I can assure you everyone is working very hard to get things ready, and although it may take a few days longer, things will roll VERY quickly once it happens.
Please believe me, if there is anyone that is really excited to get this game out for you guys, it is definitly me!
Thanks,
Hubert
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I thought so, thanks for the preview and I am glad you enjoyed the gameI was fiddling around with different approaches to see how the AI reacts since I've seen too many strategy games with really weak or illogical AI.Hubert
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First things first, but it will not be long after release.
Hubert
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As SuperTed has alluded to I can pretty much guarantee you that the AI did not make those placements. No disrespect to the previewer here but my guess is that he was just fooling around for the screenshotsYes very odd, but I just attributed it to a boneheaded AI move.
I am not sure if you mean by number of units or tech levels but I'll try and best answer your observation. As far as I know from the sources I used, the number of German Air Fleets for the '44 scenario is about right, (I actually discluded Luftflotte Reich for play balance) but if it's for the tech level, keep in mind that for the final version jet's don't kick in now until level-4 and 5. The unit icon shown is for level-3 which is the beginning of the advanced swept wing design leading to full jet technology at levels 4 and 5. So that's a bit different from the 'Beta Demo'The gross overstrength of the Luftwaffe in '44 worries me more.[/QB]Hope that helps,
Hubert
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Glad to hear that you like the game, as for the Gold announcement, that will still happen soon and I do apologize sincerely to all of you for the delays. Please believe me everyone is working hard to get this game out for you and I have a very good feeling it will be worth the waitBy the way, I am also patiently/impatiently waiting for this game to come out....gamespot has 7/31 as the release date...Hubert, pls tell us whether this week is still a possibility..the demo is awesome, just too short to satisfy my cravings.Honestly, I think this game is excellent, great work and pls keep them coming.
Hubert
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I know, I took some liberty with Yugoslavia since the turn lenghts are longer than the existence of the pro-Axis goverment. I could have had two messages with pro-Axis goverment takes power followed immediately by pro-Allied coup but just went with the current system. The yugoslavian allied units are added in at that point to give more meaning to the coup and quantifyy the thorn in Hitler's side. At that point, their coup can be ignored as some players have chosen to do, or as the Axis you can invade and overthrow the coup.
Hubert
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Good question since I know the random option has been the point of some confusion, but the way I have implemented it is to be random within a "historical context". So that would mean that it still only has the chance of joining the Axis, but could be later or not at all kind of thing.
Hubert
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If you conquer a country then their resources will max out at 80% efficiency, whereas if they join you, the resources max out at 100%.
Bill is correct, under historical mode, countries will join you on the historical dates, regardless of how you play. But if you really want to see how countries react to each event best to play in random mode throughout. Random mode takes into consideration all political actions, i.e. you will see percentage wise how Russia and the US react to German agression, and it also takes into account how the minors react to certain actions, i.e. if Germany attacks Hungary, it is most likely that Romania will reconsider joining the Axis etc.
Hope that helps,
Hubert
ULTIMATE STRATEGY!!!!
in Strategic Command 1
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Hubert